New guy here.

Ive been on here before looking for advice and backed out of buying a bike every time. This time after some more research Im finally waiting on a bike to come in. Its a Redline mono 9 I picked up on ebay. Im hoping that this change in life style will help me get back to a manageble weight. I plan on using this bike as a daily commuter to work about 5 miles one way. Anything I should do or get to make my life a little easier. btw Im a 28 5'8" 260 auto mechanic.

Ive been on here before looking for advice and backed out of buying a bike every time. This time after some more research Im finally waiting on a bike to come in. Its a Redline mono 9 I picked up on ebay. Im hoping that this change in life style will help me get back to a manageble weight. I plan on using this bike as a daily commuter to work about 5 miles one way. Anything I should do or get to make my life a little easier. btw Im a 28 5'8" 260 auto mechanic.

Ideally it would be nice to get 4 cardio sessions a week of 45min-1hr. Also, diet makes a huge difference... Drop simple carbs (and salt of course) . Eat more complex carbs and lean protein. Complex carbs are things like colorful raw veggies and fruit! Eat small healthy snack between meals to avoid binging... There's lots of threads and discussion related to diet on the board... A good book is "Younger next year". You're local book store will likely have it. It's a pretty good reference for lifestyle changes.

All that change in one shot is extremely hard... Pick one thing and commit to it. Once it becomes habit and you plateau pick another thing to "get you over the hump" and make it become habit. After a while your bad habits are no longer attractive.

Lastly, I've had success at weighing my self every day, first thing in the morning. It gives me immediate feedback regarding good and bad habits. Some say it's a bad idea. But it worked for me...

Becareful to not fall in to the weight loss trap though...especially if you have not been doing other activities. I just say that because it can be very possibly to gain weight by adding muscle mass even though you are loosing fat as well. I know from personal experience that my legs really explode with muscle growth if I ride with any frequency and I will gain weight. While the scales can certainly help...use the mirror, the way clothes fit, and comments from others as a more reliable way to judge.

Will I got the bike now and took it for its first ride this morning. Only 3.5 miles but enough to get the feel for it. Im pretty happy overall, but I think I need the bars up a little higher for my taste and comfort. My hands also were going numb during the ride, I figured this was because I was leaning pretty hard on them. What would be the best way to do this? The bike already has a couple spacers on the stem so I cant add to that. It still has the stock bars and stem ritchey pro bars it looks like a 25-30mm rise, and ritchey pro stem looks like 90 mm with 8-10 degree rise. I did some reading and found that the stem would be the easy route. If I went with a higher rise bar (2-3") what else would be involved? Could I reuse my grips or would I need new ones? Sorry for all the questions.

Yes...you can reuse them. Numb hands is a very common problem that could be cause by a number of things. One could be too much weight on your hands like you say, could be bad grips, maybe you need padded gloves, improper riding technique, gripping too hard, just need to get used to riding, ect...but yeah, a new stem would be the easiest route to raise the handle bars but in all honesty...it looks like they are pretty high to begin with. If you look at most people's bikes you will see the seat is even with or even higher than the handle bars. But of of course nobody says that's how you have to set your bike up...its all up to you and your personal comfort. It may also pay to be fitted for your bike...I know it made a huge difference on my road bike.

I did notice that most bikes are like you said seat even or higher, Ive been moving the seat around a bit to try different things out and this seems to be the most comfortable. My riding position was a little better with the seat lower, but my legs were too bent. I believe its because I have shorter arms so Im leaning more forward than normal putting most of my weight on my hands. The grips seem to be decent they are yeti grips and arent to hard or soft. I think Im just going to ride it for 2 weeks before I start making changes so I can get accustomed to riding.

I think Im just going to ride it for 2 weeks before I start making changes so I can get accustomed to riding.

Thats gonna be one of the best things you can do at first. Get your body used to riding the bike. Try to ride at least every couple days for the first few of weeks. Your body will be telling you what is going on. Stay positive and enjoy your rides.

-Im excited to find that now that I have gotten back into "bike-shape" I really enjoy standing up and pumping up hills in a higher gear. The simply joys I guess........

I would try a shorter stem first before raising the bars, something around a 50-60mm. For numb hands Ergon GP-1 grips haved saved me, used to use ridiculously padded gloves which helped only a little. Now I don't even need padded gloves at all.

thanks for the advice guys. I commuted a few days this week, and have some where around 25 miles on it so far. Im definetly getting use to riding it but still felt too stretched out, so I ordered a ritchey pro stem 30 degree 70mm. I was able to get a small test ride in after installing the new stem, and I am very happy with the results. The bike fits me like a glove now.

It looks like the next thing is some better commuter tires than the current maxxis ignitors. I was looking at the big apples but Im not sure if they would be good for my commute. I have a nice section of loose thick gravel, some rutted up slippery grass mixed into my route.